1960s English Schools - couple of questions

Hi,
Could anyone point me towards resources or information about the English education system in the late 1960s? Or does anyone know how it was organised?

In particular I'd like to check up on a few details about O-Levels and A-Levels. For instance, when was the earliest age a child could legally leave school (here in Scotland it is 15-16 after the Standard Grades, or else you can stay on to do Highers at age 16, 17, or 18. Was there a similar situation in England then?)

Also, at what age would those examinations have been taken?

I also understand the English schools are broken up differently to Scottish ones. Here we start at Primary (possibly with nursery beforehand) at age 5 and stay there until age 11, then move on to high school, where we stay until we choose to leave at the ages mentioned above. So would O Level or A Level Students have studied at Secondary school or was it called something different?

Any help is much appreciated.

These responses are fantastic, folks, exactly what I needed! I think I'm going to go with Grammar School as it suits my character's background - basically what I have is a situation where he's left school at 15 because of family stuff and the rest of his peers carried on, so are now 17 / 18 and doing A Levels, getting ready to go onto higher education etc while he's stuck.

I've discovered actually since posting that the Scottish system was almost as complicated back then as well, with 'high schools' and 'secondary schools', as well as ones in the middle or junior schools or such like dependent on the LEA here as well. My mother went to High School, where you were expected to do Highers (which until recently were meant to be the same as pdr mentioned, preparation for university and really intensive, whereas her younger brother went to the secondary as he failed his 11+ (but went on to do well academically at the secondary school and eventually was moved up to the high school). Like Dollywagon said, you were expected to get a job straight out of the secondary schools.

It all made me quite glad I was born in the late seventies and only had two schools to keep track of. I knew England was quite distinct in terms of what things were called and what each stage of the schools process was referred to though, but trying to track down information when you don't know the terms was quite harrowing!

So once again, thanks! This is for a WIP that's being plotted, ready to start when I finish draft one of something else (helps me step back from the finished one for a while so when I edit it, I'm more objective).

pdr said:

Potluck, but a College in the UK is not University.

You might well have gone to a College of Art, a Polytechnic College for skills like cooking and plumbing, a Performing Arts College or even a Sixth Form College.

But if you wanted a degree back in the 1960s you went to a University. You'd have your university college to live in but you didn't say you were a College student, you were a university student.

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Colleges back then were more for HNC, HND, Diploma, that sort of thing, right?

Both my mother and her best friend went to teaching college in the 60s but, despite what her friend tells everyone now, they didn't come out with a degree, but a specialised teaching certificate, I think. (My mother's friend, strangely, only started claiming to have a degree when I was accepted into Glasgow Uni). Nowadays though I know here some colleges offer degrees but only where they're affiliated with a university. My old college specialised in theatre, and at the time I studied there only offered a professional diploma, but is now accredited by the University of Middlesex or something.

All of which is irrelevant, I know, but I'm trying to take my mind off the fact I need to finalize my dissertation topic for tomorrow.

pdr said:

Colleges back then were more for HNC, HND, Diploma, that sort of thing, right?

Yes, still are really, although many are now linked to a university and are allowed to run a university course which may give a degree.

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Yes, that was how ours worked (unfortunately they only started this scheme after I left and couldn't afford to pay the £1,000 to do a six month course and promote my diploma to degree level. Saying that, had I got a degree in technical theatre, I wouldn't be getting funding now for the law degree, so things tend to work out, I suppose).

Jess

My maternal grandfather got an awful lot of stick from his neighbours and relatives because he encouraged my mother to go on to further education and said he would support her in anything she wanted to do (this was back in the late 50s, early 60s). They came from a very working class area, and a mining area to boot, where the traditions and such were even more rooted. To this day my mother still says her father was 'ahead of his time'.

Because of that, my mother's been very keen to do the same and encourage me to do whatever I wanted. I have to say though, the only time I have had people treat me as though I was stupid / worthless because I was from a working class / non public school background was at college in England, where there were a couple of ex-Roedean or Pangbourne people there who behaved appallingly. (what was quite funny was that I, the useless plebian, was about the only one to go out of that college into a steady, well-paying job). It made me quite glad, though, that my mother decided against sending me to Roedean at the last minute, since, even though I wasn't to be on a scholarship, I can just imagine how they'd've treated someone with my background and Scottish too.

I don't think the prejudices have come very far in some places, unfortunately.